crochet designs inspired by the colours, country side, wild life and way of life of Australia. My goal is to liven up crochet, make it fun and relevant to today and include environmental message. Patterns can be used for personal use, creating gifts and limited charity fundraising. You can not sell or copy my patterns, nor are you licensed to sell finished items made from my patterns. I want my projects to cheer your day - cockatoo, kangaroo , didgeridoo, hooroo! (c) crochetroo

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Australia Day commemorates the arrival of the Captain Phillip and the First fleet to Australia. It has also been referred to as Invasion Day, as this is the day that the British ignored the rights of the Indigenous people who had been here for centuries.Now the focus is on reconciliation and celebrating all that is great about Australia. Here are a few links. This and Anzac Day (April 25) are probably our two most significant days of the year as a Nation.

Because it is our Summer the Bar B Que and outdoor picnics are very popular. There are festivities in the parks and on the beaches and the Australian of the year awards are announced.

Australia Day also marks the near end of the school holidays as the kids usually go back to school around now.

I usually have a few projects to finish by now as the Christmas holidays are finished. I decided I would also have some Australia Day specials over at my etsy store. I will be listing some special Australia Day packages over the long weekend 26 - 28. Monday is a public holiday.

There is a group of Aussie sellers at etsy with special offers from free tim tams to samples of vegemite. Here are a few stores you might want to take a peek at who are also having Australia Day Celebrations:

It has been a strange week with mixed emotions for us down here. There is a double Health Ledger Movie session on TV tonight, in honor of the actor. So sad in a way, but fitting that he be remembered on Australia Day.

To the Aussies out there, bar-b-que hard, to the rest of you freezing, just think of sunshine and wide open spaces and imagine me by the poolside with a cool drink with a little umbrella and a tiny Aussie flag.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Meet Nora. This photo was sent to me from a lady on ravelry. Now of course you are thinking, "since when did the pug become an Australian native animal?"

Now pugs wouldn't normally be on my radar, but I was asked to make a pug pattern, for all the pug lovers out there. I am of the opinion that these dogs were at the end of the queue when God was handing out good looks to the animals. Although this little guy looks kinda cute with the manipulative puppy dog eyes.

So how on earth do I create a pug square like my other rugalugs squares? I thought I would share my progress. I start by looking at a range of photos of the critter and trying to work out what it is that makes it distinct from other critters.

I also do a simple pencil drawing so I can imagine the shape and placement of the features. This is my working notebook that I jot things down in. I often think about a design for weeks and months before I start with the hook.

Yep there are scribbles everywhere and sometimes I don't even know what I mean! I have the habit of doing little pencil sketches as I go along as I try and visualise the shape and transform this to increases and decreases.

So after a few weeks of looking at pugs, and thinking about pugs, I decided that the bits that make a pug a pug, are the downward ears, goggle eyes, and squished in snout. They look like they have hydrocephalus and remind me of those unfortunate little kids who because of their intracranial pressure have poppy eyes.

The first thing I do is to try and get an idea of the shape and facial features. I usually work in a light coloured yarn as it is easier for me to see the stitches and get a correct count.

So the bloke below is pug 1. He doesn't look very pugly at all, and I think I have made far too many koalas in my life as he looks like a hybrid koala and possum on speed. The problems are his eyes are too high. In the original the eyes are on the horizontal mid plane. The ears are too close together, the nose too big and too low, the mouth not large enough and the head is too round.

So here is Pug 2 below. This time I tried to use pug colours made the ears a bit longer and further apart, moved the eyes down, used a different colour for the snout and added some eye brows.

I think it is getting close to Nora in the picture. While I have done the nose and mouth in black, they don't show up real well against the dark brown. The next attempt I will try some different colour combos to see what works best and do a bit of tweaking. At this point I will type the pattern up into Australian /UK terms as this is my native crochet tongue. So attempt 3 I will do as I edit the typed up version for the first time.

So what do you think? What bits need to be tweaked to get the real fugly pugly look?

Thanks to Leslie for sending me the photos of her pug. Nora gave permission for me to use her pictures as long as they’re flattering to her figure!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I just discovered another clever cookie with a hooky this week who had used my fan book mark pattern to make a scarf. The tension and finish on this is impeccable. I got a real buzz out of reading this blog as well as she has some great projects to share. I cant wait to see how the prairie star afghan turns out.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Well Christmas has come and gone, as have the entourage of rellies from North, South, and West.

Our weather has been horrendous - sub cyclonic rain and wind such that all the New Years fireworks were cancelled. I feel cheated in a way as I am mad about fireworks. I am hoping that they have saved them up for Australia Day. I shouldn't complain though as there have been mass floods to the North and South of us, and a few cyclones off the coast.

My crochet projects have taken back stage to all the other things happening. A very good friend is going through chemo and I made her a selection of hats for Christmas.

This one is her Mass hat with a pin on flower. The yarn is a bamboo mix which is a pain to work with as it splits, but the fabric is so soft .

This is her Party bling hat. I used a range of yarns for this, one which had a sparkle in it.

These are her happy hats. She wanted one with rainbow colours. I also made her a plain black one and a plain white one.

I have finally finished my Aussie Snuggly Ugg Pattern. It took a while because of the testing, and I decided I wanted it in three sizes so as to include babies - toddlers. It is now available either through my blog or at my etsy store.

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About Me

I have been crocheting all my life, and my kids find this an amusing if not nerdy hobby. I am now at the stage of life where I can do as I please. My work is inspired by my homeland Australia. Both the wildlife and way of life give me inspiration. I like to have an environmental message in my work. I am a greeny and a member of Greenpeace. Hence I loathe bunnies. I reckon there are way too many crochet bunnies in the world without me creating more.
check out my etsy store for crochet critters and other stuff from down under:
http://crochetroo.etsy.com/